Pages

Thursday, June 19, 2014

1k: Расти Смерть: 1997 Lada Niva Cossack

Some folks get positively obsessed about being different. It starts with little things, like a black T-shirt, maybe a studded belt. Later the obsession is manifested by a custom skull tattoo on your ankle, maybe a hoop earring or two...and the next thing you know you are driving into downtown Québec City to score some E on your way to a rave in a Lada Niva Cossack. Want to be different, kids? Beware of the consequences. Find this 1997 Lada Niva Cossack offered for $1,850 CAD ($1702 USD) in Montréal, Québec, Canada. Tip from Zach.

First a few questions: 1. What the heck is a Lada Niva Cossack? 2. How is a car from 1997 so rusty? Okay, the second question is easy -- just see question number 1. The Lada Niva is a compact sport utility vehicle built by Russian OE AvtoVAZ starting as far back as 1997. The Cossack was an edition exported to the United Kingdom and this one somehow made its way across the pond to live and rust in Canada.

Under the hood of the Niva Cossack is a 1.7 liter engine supplied by General Motors, which is probably the highlight of the Lada driving experience. Everything else is going to be a thoroughly Russian affair, which means expect to spend a lot of time cursing, drinking Vodka, and shooting inanimate objects.

7 comments:

In MN, that would be described as "no rust" Also, that grill. Wow. What is that a 62 Chevy? Evocative of a Studebaker or International Harvester perhaps? It's quite nostalgic and tough looking. Is it stock?

Aahh! The Lada Niva! A cult of personality exists around this humble and stalwart vehicle in Russia, Eastern Europe and the West. Among the Russian Community in Chicago there is a small but fervent group of follower for these tough little trucks. I've only seen them with Fiat engines but having a GM Mill certainly makes this one more attractive. I'm guessing an Ex-Pat Russian Revivalist snaps this one up and will proudly be driving it to May events next year.

How is a car from 1997 so rusty you ask? In Quebec, it's not actually snow that lines the streets in winter, but rather mountains of salt. Unfortunately, the streets of Montreal eat cars in the winter.

I do believe we got the nova cossack up here in Canada. I had an 87iirc and it was in much better shape as far as rust went. The problem was parts availability. My uncle grenades a starter and a flywheel while off roaring and stalling it in a rock pit. He bumped it out of the rocks on the starter and chewed 70% of the teeth off the flywheel. I sold the thing while still waiting for parts some six months later.

So much misinformation up in here!My first issue with your article is likely just a typo, as the Niva has been in production since 1977, not 1997. It's still in production today, largely unchanged.My second issue is that the Cossack was mostly just an export model. I own one that was originally sold in Canada. Lada had dealers here up until the late '90's. I've never seen that particular body kit on a Canadian market Niva, but stranger things have happened. It doesn't fit very well, but frankly, neither do the factory plastic interior pieces. The biggest clue that it's not a British market car is that the steering wheel is on the correct side... the left side.My third issue is that only the engine management (i.e. fuel injection) was supplied by GM. The motor itself is still the same old Lada motor from the 70's with just some minor tweaks here and there.

As to everything else being a Russian affair? Well, it depends on what you're looking for in a vehicle. My Niva is my daily driver, and so far has not given me anything I would consider reliability issues. The only major thing that has happened is the starter solenoid breaking in half, which didn't render the Niva useless, it merely meant that topography became more relevant to parking, but if a previous owner hadn't misplaced the crank-start handle, it wouldn't have been much of a concern at all. Thanks to the internet, it only took two weeks for some very reasonably priced parts to show up from Europe, and I was still driving the Niva to and from work every day. There's a saying among Lada owners: "Always half broken, but never broken down."

Commenting Commandments:I. Thou Shalt Not write anything your mother would not appreciate reading. II. Thou Shalt Not post as anonymous unless you are posting from mobile and have technical issues. Use name/url when posting and pick something Urazmus B Jokin, Ben Dover. Sir Edmund Hillary Clint Eastwood...it don't matter. Just pick a nom de plume and stick with it.III. Honor thy own links by using <a href ="http://www.linkgoeshere"> description of your link </a>IV. Remember the formatting tricks <i>italics</i> and <b> bold </b>V. Thou Shalt Not commit spam.VI. To embed images: use [image src="http://www.IMAGE_LINK.com" width="400px"/]. Limit images to no wider than 400 pixels in width. No more than one image per comment please.

Amazon

Contributors

Facebook & Twitter

Find Cars On Ebay

Matched Ads

Trackers

All rights reserved. (C) Daily Turismo. Disclaimer: No guarantees, claims or contracts are implied or assumed by the dailyturismo for items advertised at this site or referred to from this site. Buyer beware: This site assumes no responsibility for any of the items for sale or referenced and does not assume any responsibility for any accuracy in the postings.